Obama has achieved many goals

It is hard to gain perspective in the heat of an election battle, particularly when the power of persuasion is driven not by the clarity of an ideological vision, but by the billions in political advertising dollars.

Perhaps that is why throughout this bitter and torturous presidential campaign, which began the moment President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the battle has primarily been fought on economic grounds — one side arguing that the economy which tanked in 2008 was getting better, the other saying it was not, and both sides saying the government needs to reduce spending.

It is not hard to see why so many voters were swayed by the economic argument.

In addition to a persistently high unemployment rate, middle-class American families lost approximately 20 years of accumulated wealth, while the median American family lost almost 40 percent of their net worth between 2007 and 2010 according to a Federal Reserve survey.

And according to Bloomberg, 95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession were middle-class jobs.

In the closing moments of the campaign it was to this gloomy economic picture that Mr. Obama’s Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, returned.

“Look beyond the speeches and the attacks and the ads. Look to the record, the accomplishments and failures and the judgment,” Mr. Romney said.

“Words are cheap. A record is real and earned with effort. Change cannot be measured in speeches. It is measured in achievements … Four years ago, candidate Obama promised to do so very much, but he has fallen so very short … Obama promised change, but he could not deliver it.”

The fact, however, is that despite congressional Republicans who fought hard against allowing him any legislative victories, Mr. Obama’s first term accomplishments make him the most productive president in modern times.

His legislative victories are too many to mention here. I’ll just list a few.

•Passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay law, which requires employers to pay women the same as their male colleagues for doing the same work.

•Expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover health care for 4 million children.

•Rescued the American automotive industry.

•Passed the Universal Healthcare law, which will offer coverage to 32 million more Americans while reducing the deficit by an estimated $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years.

•Implemented sweeping financial industry reforms to curtail the high risk behaviors that contributed to the Wall Street meltdown, and the collapse of the housing industry.

•Signed legislation that gave the U.S. Food & Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco.

•Signed the legislative order that stopped the deportation of young immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives, but were brought here illegally by their parents.

• Brought the U.S. in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards on torture.

•Ended the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

Unlike Mr. Romney, who only sees the bottom line of the economic ledger, President Obama understands that economics without a heart can create a more insidious form of unemployment — unemployment of the soul.

And perhaps now that the election is over, more of us will be able to fully appreciate what the president has accomplished these past four years.